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Friday, May 18, 2012

Loose Ends,..

I'm going to go ahead and bottom line a situation which has hanging over my head for the last little while. As a blogger, you really never run out of material to write about, Catholicism, politics, MMA, Transformers,..all the way to diet and nutrition. Then a few months back I attempted an exercise in futility,..trying to comment on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and how the Church views this. Well, needless to say, I still have some unpublished posts, but will publish them when the demand gets a little higher. This issue is so complex, that basically both sides are wrong, both need reconciliation, the Palestinians need pacify themselves, stop there aggression because they should have had their state back in when Israel was being established, they just didn't want Jews in 'Palestine.' They also need to seperate mosque and state and realize that Israel has a right to exist and is not going anywhere, while the Israelis need to understand that the Palestinians are human beings who should be treated with dignity and respect. When a bomb goes off, one guy in a market,..and your response is scrambling an Apache helicopter strike in a crowded city street, while bulldozing people's houses down, will cause the international community to scratch their heads.

So, how does the Church view this? Well, the Church distinguishes between Israel and the Jews. In Catholic theology, we (The Church) in accepting Christ as Messiah are the living Israel. This position has been held by both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches as well as mainstream protestant denominations. So what then is with all the money being funded to Israel by Christian groups in the States? Christian Zionism. What is this? Simply put, a belief (recent one..) that the return of the Jews to the land of Israel puts into motion the return of Christ. They claim Biblical prophesy,as being fulfilled, thus the jews become pawns in their little apocalyptic funky theology, and at the end of time convert to Christianity or are doomed...This type of thought is usually associated with evangelicals and fundamentalists. The sticking point as evidenced by a 'Sixty Minutes' expose is that there do exist Palestinian Christians too. Sadly, the Israelis don't discriminate and will collectively punish the Palestinian people, and the Christian Zionists really don't view or care for the indegineous Palestinian people, muslim, christian or otherwise. The money coming from Christian Zionists in the US usuallly goes to finance settlements, illegal settlements in the occupied territories, therefore constantly annexing land. Israel has the right to live in peace, considering that they are bordered by the ocean and every Arab State wanting to destroy them The Palestinians are entitled to running water and human rights...

So this begs the question, what would you do? Well,..as I mentioned in the first paragraph, reconciliation and education need to be the focal point, instead of propoganda and fear mongering. While historically the 'Palestinians' dropped the ball politically, (the fact that they cannot separate from their islamic theology, which is incredibly anti Jewish) Israel needs to undertstand that human rights are human rights, no matter who you are or what you believe in.

3 comments:

In this conflict, I don't think you can remain neutral. I never thought Israelis were guiltless. Who is guiltless in what is, essentially, a war?

But you have to pick who you want to win: the crazies or the sane people. The Israelis are the sane ones. When Palestine gives up terrorism and anti-semitism, they will have a much easier time of things.

@Left Footer,..Thanks!@Suzanne,..I want peace to win out. Obviously as a westerner, and someone who has studied Islam, I thank God that Israel has a presence in the Middle East! Could you imagine what it be like without it? But as a Catholic, I'll always have compassion for suffering people especially for the indigeneous Christian communities.